Share This Story!

As Charles Barkley turns 50, his 76ers story revisited

Charles Barkley was shorter than most power forwards, wider than most small forwards and as controversial, outspoken and aggressive a player as the NBA has ever seen. In between various fines and arrests and

Charles Barkley was shorter than most power forwards, wider than most small forwards and as controversial, outspoken and aggressive a player as the NBA has ever seen.

In between various fines and arrests and decreeing that sports figures weren't suitable role models, Barkley authored a 16-year Hall of Fame playing career that delivered nearly every achievement and accolade short of a league title.

"Sir Charles" relied on his remarkable strength and agility to become an 11-time All-Star, an 11-time All-NBA selection and the 1993 NBA MVP, which he won in his first season with the Phoenix Suns after demanding a trade following eight seasons in Philadelphia. He also finished second in league MVP voting in 1990.

Barkley turned 50 Wednesday, and while the chatterbox TNT analyst is an open book, his time with the 76ers remains a unique story of conflict, camaraderie and mixed results.

"Charles was about 6-4, he weighed 290 and he could take the ball off the backboard and go the length of the floor," said then-Sixers general manager Pat Williams, recalling the player he selected out of Auburn with the fifth overall pick in the 1984 draft. "There's never been anybody quite like him, really."

But as the 1983-84 NBA season drew to a close and what became the legendary 1984 NBA draft approached, Barkley wasn't the 76ers' first option.

He wasn't even Plan B.

The Sixers had been poised to select either Michael Jordan or Hakeem Olajuwon with one of the first two picks, at least until the Houston Rockets allegedly tanked the final month of the season to get into the coin flip.

Back then, in the final season before the NBA instituted the draft lottery, the worst team in each conference called heads or tails for the right to pick No. 1 overall. The Rockets lost 18 of their final 24 games, including nine of their last 10, to finish with one more loss than the San Diego Clippers, thereby securing the worst record in the Western Conference.

Philadelphia owned the perennially struggling Clippers' first-round draft pick that season, which it had received by trading World B. Free six years earlier.

"It was a good long-term annuity," Williams said. "And the entire year we were in the coin flip, but in the last month, Houston went on that incredible losing rampage. They lost every night. … And on the last Saturday of the season, Houston loses again, and the Clippers win. We go from the coin flip, from Jordan or Olajuwon, to the fifth pick."

Then-Sixers owner Harold Katz loved Barkley's on-court abilities and the way he handled himself in an interview with the team. The late Sixers superscout Jack McMahon described him as a ball-handling Wes Unseld.

But that enormous talent was packed into an enormous frame, and the Sixers had their concerns.

"We took him, somewhat fearful," Williams said. "He weighed 290 pounds. I said, 'Charles, you need to eat a more balanced diet. A Big Mac in both hands is not a balanced meal.' "

Barkley, who was frequently listed at 6-6 but has admitted to being shorter, showed up at the Sixers' summer camp unsigned.

"I remember him when he first came out to training camp," said Bobby Jones, at the time one season removed from winning the inaugural Sixth Man of the Year Award and the 1983 NBA championship. "I told Julius [Erving], 'I don't know if his back and knees are going to take it.' He came into camp 305 pounds. We didn't know if his body would take the pounding that we knew he would have to take to play a lot of years."

"We worked the contract, had all sort of weight clauses in it," Williams said. "As it turned out, we never checked them one time. He came back in the fall at 250 [pounds] and was an absolutely spectacular NBA player."

Under the tutelage of three-time NBA MVP Moses Malone, Barkley averaged 13 points and 8.6 rebounds in his first season with the Sixers while on his way to an NBA All-Rookie first team selection.

Barkley averaged 22.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game while shooting 54.1 percent from the field for his career. He led the Sixers in rebounding and field goal percentage for seven of his eight seasons in Philadelphia. He led them in scoring for six of those seasons.

Barkley retired in 2000 as the fourth player in NBA history to record 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. The NBA named him one of the top 50 players in league history in 1996 – while he was still an active player – and he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame 10 years later. His No. 34 has been retired by the Sixers, the Suns and Auburn, where he was the SEC Player of the Year his junior season.

"I always tell people the most influential person in my career was Moses, because he got me in shape and taught me how to work hard," Barkley said during his Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony. "I asked him early in my rookie year, 'Why am I not getting to play?' After I got over the fat and lazy thing – it took me a little bit to get over that – he got me in shape. … [Erving], these guys taught me how to be a man. I owe those guys a great deal of gratitude."

Barkley started at power forward in his second season in Philadelphia, when he averaged 20 points and 12.8 rebounds, making him the team's second-leading scorer and top rebounder.

"The Round Mound of Rebound" became the face of the franchise when Erving retired following the 1985-86 season.

But while the Sixers reached the playoffs four times in the next six years, the team never advanced beyond the second round. Barkley demanded a trade after the Sixers went 35-47 and missed the 1992 postseason.

"He drove me crazy," said Sixers legend Billy Cunningham, who won NBA titles in Philadelphia as both a player and a coach. "I had him his first year. I would have loved to have coached him more. I did quit after that year. [Barkley] wasn't the reason. I just saw something, and it was starting to happen. I could see growth. I could see that at some point they were going to get through to him. But as good as he was, in my opinion, he didn't scratch the surface."

The Sixers, in an effort to keep Barkley happy during his final season in Philadelphia, had gone so far as to allow their star player to wear Cunningham's retired No. 32 in honor of Magic Johnson, who had announced he was HIV positive. But by the end of the season, Barkley demanded a change of scenery.

"Charles decided he wasn't going to be a good teammate in Philly anymore," Williams said. "He didn't think the team would win, was discouraged, thought his whole career was going to be winless and just forced his way out of town, which stars can do."

At the time, Barkley was fourth in Sixers history in total points, third in scoring average and rebounds, second in field goal percentage and eighth in assists. He also wasn't far removed from being named MVP of the 1991 All-Star Game, when he recorded 17 points and 22 rebounds in the East's victory.

Nevertheless, the Sixers obliged, and Barkley was dealt to the Suns for Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry. Hornacek, the best player the Sixers received in the exchange, was unhappy in Philadelphia and stuck around for less than two years.

"The trade didn't work," Williams said. "Harold Katz would tell you it was the biggest regret of his ownership. [Barkley] went to Phoenix, and the deal didn't produce much of anything. We basically gave him away."

Less than two months later, Barkley was the leading scorer and won an Olympic gold medal with the 1992 "Dream Team," a feat he repeated in 1996.

He went on to win the 1993 NBA MVP award in his first season in Phoenix, leading the Suns to the NBA finals, where they lost in six games to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. It was the closest Barkley ever came to winning the league title. The Sixers, meanwhile, missed the playoffs in each of the next six seasons.

The Suns traded Barkley to the Rockets in 1996, where he recorded a career-high 33 rebounds in his first game. But he fought through injuries during the final seasons of his career. After rupturing his left quadriceps in 1999, Barkley rehabbed for four months to return for one final game. He walked off the court a standing ovation.

Barkley has become an Emmy Award-winning basketball analyst and author. He also has flirted with a political career, at times expressing a desire to run for governor of his native Alabama.

"Powerful, strong, could do things with the basketball that a player that size had never done before and will never do again," Williams said. "I don't think we'll see his likes again. Colorful and flamboyant, as he is to this day. Every time Charles speaks, you better listen, because he's going to say something off the wall.

"The most colorful sports figure that Philadelphia ever had. That was Sir Charles."